Almost without exception, these demos have ended up with police attacks on demonstrators. Last year, over 200 were arrested and fined.

All day, [url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Protesters+urged+avoid+march+madness... have been all over the media[/url] essentially warning students (who are demonstrating every day, all over the place) not to join the anti-brutality demo! Apparently the students are nice, while the others are not. Except when the police are beating, stun grenading, pepper-spraying, tear-gassing, mutilating, and arresting the students, that is...

A symphony of smashing, spray-painting and projectile-tossing reverberated in downtown Montreal during the city's notoriously raucous annual anti-police march Thursday.

Protesters lobbed objects at officers, vandalized some stores and smashed two police vehicles. Authorities responded by firing off chemical irritants in a bid to disperse a crowd of about 1,000 people.

At least 150 people were arrested Thursday night — although that number was expected to grow, given there were more than 200 detained last year.

About 2,000 protesters headed north through the city, then west along Sherbrooke Street, but no police were visible along the route, although they were positioned on adjacent streets and in the city's subway system.

When about six officers did appear, a few protesters started throwing rocks at them. At one intersection, police fired off two loud stun grenades, sending a panic through the crowd. Protesters ran in all directions, but riot police formed a line, and banging on their shields with their batons, marched forward, shoving demonstrators north.

One man, trying to stop some young men from throwing rocks, was hit in the forehead with a tear gas canister and it exploded.

Scott Weinstein, a nurse in the crowd who was providing first aid when needed, poured water over the man's eyes, as the man screamed in anger.

"If he hadn't been wearing ski goggles, he could have been blinded," Weinstein said. "His hair was singed and his goggles covered in chemicals.

"I've never been in a demonstration ever where police threw explosives into the crowd," said Weinstein, who says he's been in dozens of demos. "It's a terrible path to take because these people will lose their eyes."

The man, who said he had a 20-month-old child, sat on the steps of an apartment building and tried to comprehend what had just happened.

The anti-police brutality demonstration, organized by the Collectif Opposé a la Brutalité Policière (COBP), was marred by small groups of protestors who took part in acts of sporadic violence. Projectiles were hurled at store windows and police vehicles along St-Catherine, after riot police stopped the march in front of McGill’s Strathcona Music building and demonstrators diverted to St-Catherine.

The violence was widely condemned by other demonstrators, however, who responded to most instances of vandalism by booing. After a masked man unsuccessfully tried to force open an ATM machine with a garbage can, he was surrounded by the crowd.

At 6:30 p.m., riot police scattered the crowd into several smaller groups by detonating flash grenades and repeatedly charging demonstrators. A standoff occurred between a splinter group of demonstrators and police on the corner of Drummond and St-Catherine at 7 p.m.

The group, which consisted mostly of bystanders, was later pushed up St-Catherine. A parked police car was smashed and overturned along the way by demonstrators wearing masks.

Shortly after 7 p.m., roughly 200 demonstrators, most them masked, flooded down the McTavish steps on to McGill’s lower campus. The crowd made its way past the Redpath Museum, while one demonstrator stood atop its steps and led a chant, in French, of “Whose streets? Our streets!”

the Montreal pork obviously thought the event was perfect for a demonstration OF police brutality rather than AGAINST...I hope it has not been missed that the tactics and behaviour of police FORCES generally has been growing ever more brutal and the citizenry treated as an enemy to be crushed with violence. This reflects the ethos and intention of those who own and control. Defend and protect needs to become our collective motto against them.

The families of people killed by the police, their friends and their allies are organizing the third annual commemorative vigil to remember those who have lost their lives at the hands of the police. These families, who face an uphill battle in uncovering the truth and obtaining justice for their loved ones, need our support.

Monday, October 22: There will be a family-led and family-friendly vigil in front of the Police Brotherhood (480 Gilford St., Laurier metro, St-Joseph exit). We strongly encourage as many supporters as possible to come out and show our support for the families. There is power in numbers!

What we are seeking is DIGNITY, JUSTICE and TRUTH.

The purpose of the march is to:REMEMBER the victims who lost their lives to police violence and abuse;andSUPPORT their families in any way we can.

The Justice for the Victims of Police Killings Coalition currently involves the family members and friends of Anas Bennis, Claudio Castagnetta, Ben Matson, Quilem Registre, Gladys Tolley and Fredy Villanueva, all of whom died as a direct result of police actions and interventions. We continue to reach out to family and friends of other victims of police killings.

Montreal’s annual anti-brutality march instantly descended into chaos Friday as riot cops snatched protesters from the crowd before the demonstration even began.

The notoriously combative event saw police chase hundreds of protesters through a crowd of bystanders downtown, occasionally hurling CS gas bombs in an attempt to splinter the group. After a few skirmishes saw two officers hospitalized, the riot squad surrounded demonstrators on Ste. Catherine St. E. and began making mass arrests.

Two groups were corralled against a wall near the Berri UQAM métro station, with police kicking and striking those who wouldn’t move fast enough. In the end, about 250 people were handcuffed and taken away by the busload.

“This was just dumb, incredibly dumb,” said Shawn Austin, a 23-year-old university student. “We were never given a chance to prove we can be peaceful. We’re not out here to say all cops are bad. We’re out here to make the point the police brutality is unacceptable and I think tonight, the police made that point for us."

Quebec endured the largest police crackdown in its history, with arrests numbering 3,418 between February 16 and September 3, 2012,

during last year’s student tuition fee hike protest.

Many believe that the methods employed by police during the student protests were brutal and often excessive and inappropriate. Hundreds of witnesses reported a policy of profiling, abuse, repetitious physical and verbal violence, and aggressive intervention strategies on peaceful crowds. Many people were injured and several youths bear permanent scars. Members of the media and citizens were also brutalized. It is time that police methods of managing large crowds or protesters, a system of repression and systematic use of violence, like that which was unleashed against student protesters and supporters in Quebec, be questioned and revised.

Please sign the petition (In French only) to be sent to Quebec’s Minister of Public Safety, Stéphane Bergeron, in support of a public inquiry on police violence.

Alain Simoneau is a weasel. He proclaimed to the crowd that they could march in peace whilst his troops were openly terrorising those in attendance and blocking people from joining the crowd. Moments after it began he had a charge effected that split that crowd in two. He then had the group ambushed from a parking garage by the SQ and after forcing them on Ste-Catherine against traffic cited this as the reason to demand a dispersal.

Before the march began I saw them pick FIVE people off one by one. The third one started to infuriate people there (it was a kid who said "It's winter... I don't get it!") and the anti-emeute suddenly showed up as if it was choreographed. The fifth one led to the boxing in of everyone on three sides. Video footage shows a young woman leaving the scene in tears because of the violence perpetrated by the police.

This whole series of events is a scandal and I reserve my strongest blame to the punishment lobby out there who demands police brutality every day. They are the real problem and I would like to organise a demo specifically targeting them! That the media reported the events as a great success show their role as part of this punishment lobby and part of the problem. The police claimed by the way that this was proof that demonstrations can be carried out according to the rules without anything broken even though one police cruiser was vandalised and one window broken. Funny how these things "didn't happen" because it's inconvenient to mention it but had the atmosphere been more "permissive" to use a favourite word of the punishment lobby we would never have heard the end of it...

"At least 279 protesters have been detained and fined in central Montreal during a rally against police tactics and the controversial bylaw that puts limitations on peaceful demonstrations. Ethan Cox, Quebec correspondent for Rabble.ca who was at the Friday protest, told RT that police just corralled the crowd on all sides, not allowing anyone to leave and then gave a $637 - ticket to anyone who was caught up...."

Benoît Marsan, Graduate student in History at Université de Sherbrooke

March 26, 2013

Original French textL

My graduate research has focused on the Communist Party of Canada and on Montreal’s unemployed during the Great Depression. As I was getting to the end of uncovering my sources at the same time as Bill 78 was tabled, I was hearing outrage from several people in my surroundings about the situation and their comments on the unprecedented media discourse, the justifications for police interventions and the event coverage in the mass media, the likes of which had never been seen in Quebec. However, following my reading of some archival documents, I had a slight feeling of déjà vu…

Wow. I guess RR and I should be glad we weren't kettled when we wandered into the Good Friday protest last weekend when we first arrived in town. We didn't even know what we were walking into, didn't know what it was about until someone explained to us what it was, and then we stuck around for a while until our stomachs got the better of us and we had to go eat something (we'd been on the road all day).

Thanks for the reports and updates, folks. Glad there's lots of fightback happening.

It appears that Vision Montréal will vote to repeal P-6 (the statement linked to doesn't quite say that outright, but seeing as Vision Montréal voted against the amendment in 2012 and that they appear not to have changed their position, this should normally be the outcome).

I believe that PM has 10 votes at the municipal council and VM, 14, and that 9 other votes must thus be obtained to reach the 33 majority mark.

After around 30 minutes, the group takes to the street and walks in a circle around Parc Émilie-Gamelin, which happens to be the the only way not blocked by a police barrage appearing to be a trap facilitating surrounding the crowd. But the SPVM appears once again quite committed to a unilateral application of bylaw P-6 and charges the group after a few minutes. Without a preliminary warning of dispersal, the majority of people there, including babies and strollers, find themselves trapped in a kettle. The marchers are arrested and detained (or stopped according to police communications), and are to be released a few hours later, clutching their 637$ fines.

Around the kettle, the customary game ensues. Journalists who weren’t themselves caught in the mass arrest are confined to a “pen”, where they can exercise their freedom of the press, under the intervention unit’s watchful eye. Neighborhood patrol groups bring people back towards the kettle or push them farther, in an arbitrary manner and along imaginary lines not to be crossed, and disperse as their attention is drawn elsewhere. Tonight, the police are not expounding their habitual “Bouge!” [transl. “Move!”], but simply ask people to circulate, sometimes to the north, sometimes to the south, sometimes off the sidewalk, sometimes off the grass. No crime is committed, except that of constraining the freedom of association and of expression....

Vision Montreal is calling for a debate involving all municipal parties to help determine how the city can best balance the right to peaceful protest and public security concerns. Until that debate happens, Vision will not support Projet Montréal’s motion to repeal P-6 immediately.

They are plainly trying to push back the issue so that nothing happens until the elections. No political courage whatsoever. (Conversely, I commend the political courage of the PM people who went on the air yesterday to explain their position. I've had my differences with PM and some of their initiatives, but I feel it's important to praise initiatives such as this one.)

And Louise Harel still dares to call her party a "progressive" party... I dream of the day when Vision Montreal vanishes.

Pressure and criticism are mounting against Montreal police as protesters continue to be arrested by the hundreds under legislation detractors say is unconstitutional.

The two main municipal parties both came out against the bylaw Monday, and a vote to repeal the bylaw is expected April 22.

Amended last May in response to increasing protests during the student general strike, new sections of the bylaw render protesting in public space illegal if a route is not provided to police at least 24 hours in advance. Participants are also forbidden from concealing their faces while demonstrating.

“These provisions of the bylaw easily lend themselves to discriminatory enforcement and application,” wrote Nathalie Des Rosiers and Cara Faith Zwibel on behalf of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, in a letter to interim mayor Michael Applebaum dated April 2.

A second letter from the CCLA was also sent to Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal chief Marc Parent.

Last May, the Quebec Bar Association also openly denounced the new bylaw sections as a violation of legally protected rights to free expression and association....

A bit off topic, but which Projet Montréal initiatives do you not support?

To cite one example, their "crackdown" on small venues where musicians of the local scene play due to noise complaints. I'm under the impression that there've been improvements on that front, that there has been a bit more effort deployed to build bridges between the involved parties.

quote:“We’re working on it”, he stated, explaining however that the preparations for this lawsuit, that is soon to be filed at the Superior Court, are quite challenging given that it involves coordinating approximately 2500 plaintiffs. “We’re running out of time”, he added.

Me Poitras explained that if the municipal bylaw is judged unconstitutional by the Superior Court given that it infringes on the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, then all the searches, arrests, etc. will be found illegal by the same token, and the victims would have to be indemnified for what they went through.

The lawyer is also taking care of contesting the tickets received by protesters which were received during any of last spring’s protests, or those organized over the course of the following months.

“We are waiting for the notice of hearing from the Municipal Court, but there will not be a trial before a year’s time”, he pointed out, insisting on the fact that every arrest would be subject to trial.

Me Denis Poitras has also been mandated to defend Anarchopanda’s appeal, which was filed with the Quebec Superior Court in the spring of 2012 against the P-6 bylaw...

The mass arrests were done under different articles of P6. Let's start from the beginning. Article 2 is the original illegal demonstration article, a form of unlawful assembly, on the books since November 1969. Article 2.1 is the new article invented in May 2012 dealing with the lack of an itinerary. Article 2.1 is most vulnerable to constitutional challenge. Even more vulnerable is Article 3.2, the mask provision, as a similar provision in Quebec City was struck down as unconstitutional in 2004. A handful of people have been ticketed under that.

..wasn't sure where to place this article. doing a search i found the p6 law references inside other threads. it may be that it needs it's own thread as the discussion over it continues. or maybe i just missed it's thread.

Confronting the systemic roots of P6

A wave of street politics has begun in Québec as the PQ government pursues its conservative nationalist agenda, and this wave is being met with an organised police response.

Grassroots activists across Montréal are using a range of tactics to resist P6, a city bylaw that has emerged as the preferred regulation at police disposal. Despite these inspiring acts of resistance, divisions continue to surface before protests even take place. Activists are rightfully questioning why organisers would comply with P6. These divisions are likely to occur again, so a grassroots strategy that recognises this reality is needed.

One thing is certain: this struggle will not be won in parliaments and city halls. The words of Audre Lorde are significant here. “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” These struggles will be fought – and won – in our workplaces, streets, and above all, on the frontlines....http://www.mediacoop.ca/blog/matthew-brett/22125

Three years after being arrested by Montreal police service (SPVM) at the March 15, 2012 anti-police brutality demonstration, more than 80 people charged under the controversial bylaw P-6 learned this week that they're no longer going to trial. The prosecutor for Montreal confirmed that the charges were removed just days before the trial was finally set to start.

Gonzalo Nunez, a public relations officer with the City of Montreal, told VICE that "after reviewing the evidence, the prosecutor decided not to proceed with the case." According to Nunez, the city's prosecutor concluded it would not be possible to "discharge the burden of proof" in time for the trial that was set to begin on January 29, 2015...

You have to ask: at what point does this become a form of harrassment .... one is charged by police, await trial for three years and then the prosecutor steps in at the last moment and says "we didn't have time to get our act together". Unbelievable.

And here's a statement by the organizers (Collective Opposed to Police Brutality). [Note that the year is mistakenly given as 2014 in the English version - but no big deal, the story never changes from one year to the next.]